Over the past few weeks, YouTube has slowly released a slew of outstanding new features. It may not look different on the surface, but here are several new features that you need to know about to make the most of the platform as a creator and marketer!
1. Edit Your Videos
In mid-September YouTube launched their video editing feature, allowing users to easily make minor edits to their videos right on the site. Editing features include trimming video, swapping out the soundtrack, and adding effects such as lighting and color scheme changes, stabilizing hand-held camera shaking, and rotation. The only drawback? Popular videos with over 1,000 views and videos with third-party content can only be saved as new videos once edited.
Watch YouTube’s video announcing the features.
2. Creator Playbook
The creator playbook is a free downloadable resource designed for partners and creators to learn important tips, strategies, and practices towards building and reaching an audience. The document contains information on programming, producing video, publishing, optimization, and community outreach in an attempt to get the most out of creators. This isn’t a cheap one-pager, either! The current document clocks in at a whopping 70 pages, so make sure you have some coffee by you while you are perusing.
3. Indie Label Signup Made Easier
Are you an indie musician? Well, YouTube is here to help you out. Indie labels can now easily become YouTube partners and share the revenue that their music creates, instead of waiting for years to become a partner.
Check out the new indie signup form.
4. Merch Store
YouTube now allows partners to sell merchandise directly through their YouTube channels. Fans will now be able to purchase:
It’s a great addition and opportunity for artists to increase merchandise sales, especially for those artists who have no platform from which they can sell their merchandise.
Read more about the merch store on the YouTube blog.
5. Track The 2012 Presidential Campaign
YouTube is slowly becoming a political haven, launching its own site dedicated to politics. The Politics YouTube site features official campaign ads from all of the 2012 presidential candidates, speeches, and even parodies. YouTube says they want to make it even easier for you to keep your finger on the political pulse. People can tune into the YouTube Politics to see the Top 5 most viewed videos from candidates and/or the Top 5 Hot Political Videos (whatever that really means).
YouTube’s Politics site features more than just video. Want to compare candidates? The site features interactive widgets allowing you to see which candidates have been gaining the most YouTube views on a controllable timeline. Who’s on a hot streak? Featured statistics show how many video views, subscribers and video shares each candidate has has gained compared to the previous week.
Unfortunately, the comment section reflects the standard YouTube channel but their decision to place this at the very bottom of the page may be a strategic one. Despite the lack of invited conversation, YouTube has at least centralized the online 2012 presidential election’s political ad display.
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